Theological Reflection

The “organized church” of the twenty-first century is a far cry from the fledgling association evident a few decades after Christ’s Ascension. The Christian Church has seen the East/West split between Catholic and Orthodox in 1054, the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, and the continued delineation of Christian tribes by theological emphasis since then. Does the existence of these denominations indicate that the Church of Jesus Christ has failed or that it exists in a perpetual less-than-God-glorifying state? This is an important point to ponder. If the answer is “Yes,” then any consideration of breaking from the PCUSA—with the

For the last two days I have been sitting on this next post, trying to decide which topic should come first: the legitimacy of Christian denominations or what one might do when/if one’s own denomination detaches from its roots. I am not procrastinating on these questions, but think we need to do a little more work from within Paul’s letters to gain some guidance: The apostle Paul did not live in an environment of denominations as we know them; the church, from his point of view, was still unified in a loose association and he was one of its most

In light of the interesting comments and conversation resulting from yesterday’s post, I have elected to spend one more day on Jesus before moving on to Paul, regarding doctrinal expectations. The gospels give us no evidence that Jesus was insistent upon a particular “system” of doctrine. The Pharisees had a very punctilious system of doctrine, but there was something seriously wrong with them spiritually, and Jesus called them out about it all the time. Things could be distilled into a far less complicated framework of belief. For Jesus, there were two main core beliefs around which everything else would fall

The PCUSA, and particularly the evangelical wing of the church, is pondering the meaning of its existence and its future. Though I am certainly not the first to raise questions designed to get us back to our roots, it is timely to ask what Jesus had in mind, if anything, for a church, the Church, or his followers as a group. To that end, I have compiled a list of Scriptures relevant to such an inquiry and welcome your input if you think I have forgotten something. For simplicity, the terms “believers” and “Christians” refer to individuals who have trusted

Presbyterian pastors are feeling some pressure while the evangelical wing undergoes its process of evaluation, discernment, and decision-making. Every time the denomination takes some controversial action, pastors endure the painful visits of parishioners who express their intention to leave the PCUSA.  Today I would like to explore where this pain leads, and follow up this week pondering the meaning of “church” and maybe even “denomination.” One of our Historic Principles of Church Order affirms the voluntary nature of one’s participation in the Presbyterian/Reformed wing of Protestantism. We have gone on record saying that one does not need to be a